Camping with the birthday girl...

 Abby is TWO today.

Her morning started out in a tent. We have wanted to go camping all Summer but our weekends have been very very busy or sickness it just wasn't happening. This week we decided to seize the opportunity and go. So Tuesday Dan was planning to be home from work by 2pm so we could have plenty of time to get to our camping site and cook dinner but then an earthquake had to go and mess with our plans (another blog post of its own). So we finally left home at 5pm and made it up to Coctoctain National Park, in Thurmont MD. The kids were in heaven, Dan included!  Our tents is absolutely ginormous (to us anyways) so the kids had a blast playing in it. Abby slept pretty well, as long as she was touching me!:) In the morning we sang happy birthday and gave her a birthday muffin. We spent the morning hiking around the area and enjoying the gorgeous weather. It was perfect.

A cinnamon muffin and lots of hugs and kisses! Oh how she loves her Benny-C.C.!

Our tent has 2 rooms, 2 bay windows, a shelf and sleeps 10 people! We have smaller tents too. Anyone who knows Dan will understand the need for multiple, AWESOME, tents!

Since our tent is so honk'in huge Dan and I have to tackle it several times to get it into its case. As soon as I took this picture of the tent finally compacted into its case I noticed Jake didn't have his glasses on...they were still inside the tent! So we did it all over again. Luckily all our tackling didn't break his glasses.

When we got home I hurried to make dinner and her birthday cake while everyone napped. We ate and then sadly I hurried off to a Cub Scout meeting.  I think I may have taken on a bit too much that day and was about in tears when I realized I had yellow frosting instead of white and no RED food coloring for ELMO. But alas, I made due with red sprinkles and figured as long as Abby knew who it was I would be happy.  She LOVES Elmo!

A 2 year old is so easy to please! She was delighted with an Elmo doll and a card from Aunt Rhonda.

Just a little more about Abby...

She is a girlie girl.  She and Tess love it when I put some of my make-up on them. However, I have to be sure to lock my make-up in the cabinet or else I end up cleaning mascara off Abby's face. She loves to put on shoes (and then run on the treadmill like her momma).

She wants to be so independent. Taking her shopping can be a miserable experience these days. I just have to be ready to let her walk and touch everything!:) She is all about doing everything she can by herself at which point she excitedly says "I did it"! It's really cute.

She learned the word "ACCIDENT!" from Jake and Tess and it is now my absolute least favorite word! Here is why... when Tess, or Jake, comes to me crying about something the other person has done, the culprit quickly exclaims, "Mom it was an ACCIDENT!" Now Abby grumpily shouts at me "ACCIDENT" several times a day wether she has hit someone, again, or is simply wanting my attention.

Recently Abby will join me at the piano. Standing on the bench beside me she will sing and sing and sing. I LOVE it! We sing lots of songs together. She knows I Am A Child of God and loves to sing it on her own while I play, it is the cutest thing ever! I am going to video tape it and put it on the blog soon for Grandma's and Grandpa to enjoy! The first time she did it I quickly called Dan and had her sing to him...I don't think his eyes were dry by the end!

She is a doll! I can not imagine a day without this spunky toe-headed girl!